Patent Pending Interview [April 2017]

We recently caught up with Joe Ragosta, frontman of super-awesome pop-punk band Patent Pending in Leeds before their show at The Key Club. Here’s what he had to say…

Hey Joe, how’s it going?

I’m great, thanks! How’re you?

Great! So, you’re a few days into your UK tour. How’s everything been so far?

It’s been amazing, man! It’s been absolutely crazy. Every time we come back we’re like ‘”There’s no way it’s going to be as good as it was last year” and every year it’s better than that. I don’t know how to explain it, people are just out of their damn minds, and it’s been chaos! Tonight we’re in Leeds at The Key Club, it’s sold out, and the first time we ever played here the floor broke. People were going so hard that the floor broke! I think tonight is going to be crazy as well, I’m excited!

We’re based in York. You played in York last year, do you remember much about it?

I remember a lot about York. York was the weirdest show of the tour last year. There were so many shows last year that were in Yorkshire so it was spread really thin. I guess that one must have been announced last or something, so it was weird already. The venue was weird and it smelled like pee, but the town was amazing.

How important do you think it is for bands like yourselves to get out there and to the more regional shows? Because such as York, being only 20 miles from Leeds, we don’t tend to get as many big tours coming through…

Well last year it sold out here in Leeds as well, and Manchester is quite close to here, right? About an hour away? In America, a bands closest show will be like four hours away. Here’s it’s different because people can go to a ton of shows. I think it’s important for bands to get out and try new places, but it’s also much easier when a bigger band takes you. We’re going to Wales this week, but we went there with Bowling For Soup, so it’s going to be ok. If we went to Wales alone for the first time it would probably be weird. I think it’s important that bands just keep playing.

As we’ve already mentioned, we’re in Leeds. You’ve played here quite a lot, maybe more than anywhere else in the UK other than London?

We’ve played in Leeds more than London, because the first few times we came over here we didn’t play in London. Yeah, we’ve played in Leeds the most. Leeds is the best place!

So what keeps you coming back to Leeds?

Dude, you guys are out of you’re damn minds! First of all, the city is gorgeous. Your Dunkin’ Donuts look like our Government buildings. This city is just so beautiful. The people here are so supportive, and that’s nuts. And Slam Dunk is awesome here as well. We’ve played Slam Dunk Festival once, and all of our equipment broke, but it was still great.

You’ve just released your cover of Spice Up Your Life, what can people expect from the album to follow?

Spice Of Your Life just came out, and it’s metal sounding, which is hilarious. Kerrang just premiered Wasted/Wake Me Up which is a Tiesto/Avicci mash up. We’ve also done Livin’ La Vida Loca and Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You. Never Gonna Give You up by Rick Astley. It’s just so fun.

In addition to the covers, can people expect to hear any new original Patent Pending material any time soon?

All I can say is that if you’re a Patent Pending fan, this is a very, very fantastic year for you. That’s all I can say about that, but it’s going to be awesome.

When you come over to the UK, you tend to hand pick your own tour supports. How does that process work?

It’s unintentional, because no one wants to open for us. We put out things that say “This band is going on tour, they sell this many tickets, blah blah blah, does anyone want to go?” and no one says yes. So then we end up choosing which is fun. Sweet Little Machine, we played with them last year and liked them a lot and we were able to bring our friends Eternal Boy over from America so it’s fun being able to do that. And we’ve got Boy Jumps Ship joining us half way through.

So through that you must get to find out about a lot of awesome bands that we might not know about. Who should we be checking out?

Sweet Little Machine, Eternal Boy and Boy Jumps Ship. Lacey is an awesome band. The Bottom Line is an awesome band. There’s a band called This Good Robot, which is my brother’s band. They’re awesome. There are so many good bands. Set It Off, you probably know them over here already?

Hollywood calls, they’re making ‘Patent Pending: The Movie’ and you’re in charge of casting. Who plays you?

Colin Farrell. Or Wilmer Valderrama. Or Ryan Reynolds. Who is better looking? We’ll go with that! I think the best choice for me would be Wilmer Valderrama. For Anthony, Pierre from Simple Plan. They’re almost identical. For Rob Felicetti… this is really weird but if Rob wears sunglasses and looks slightly to the left, he looks like Tom Cruise. Marc Kantor: Vince Vaughn. Corey DeVincenzo would be Corey Feldman. That’s a great question!

Finally, is there anything else you’d like to add for anyone checking this out?

Yeah dude! Go to patentpendingmusic.com and keep up with us this year because there’s going to be a lot! And check out our new album ‘Other People’s Greatest Hits’ which is available world wide on May 26th, or at shows now!